Australia is the only country that is also a continent. In area, it ranks as the sixth largest country and smallest continent. Australia lies between the South Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The part of the Indian Ocean south of Australia is called the Southern Ocean in the country. Australia is about 11,000 kilometres southwest of North America and about 3,000 kilometres southeast of mainland Asia. Australia is often referred to as being "down under" because it lies entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. The name Australia comes from the Latin word australis, meaning southern. The country's official name is the Commonwealth of Australia.

Australia is a dry, thinly populated land. Only a few areas along or near the coasts receive enough rainfall to support a large population. The southeastern coastal region has the most people by far. Australia's two largest cities--Sydney and Melbourne--lie in this region. Canberra, the national capital, lies only a short distance inland. The huge interior of Australia is mostly desert or dry grassland and has few settlements. Australia is famous for its vast open spaces, bright sunshine, enormous numbers of sheep and cattle, and unusual wildlife. Kangaroos, koalas, platypuses, and wombats are some of the animals that live in Australia.

The country was once a British colony, and most of the Australian people are of British ancestry. When people moved to Australia from Great Britain (also known as the United Kingdom), they took many British customs with them. For example, Australians drive on the left side of the road. Tea is a popular hot drink for Australians, as it is for the British. English is the official language of Australia. However, the people of Australia have developed a way of life all their own. Australia has a warm, sunny climate. The people can therefore spend much of their time out-of-doors. Australians love outdoor sports and outdoor living.

Australia is one of the world's industrial countries. It has busy cities, modern factories, and highly productive farms and mines. Australia is the leading producer and exporter of wool and bauxite (the ore from which aluminium is made). It also produces and exports other minerals and farm goods. The United Kingdom (UK) was Australia's most important trading partner. Today, Australia trades more with Japan and the United States.

The first Australians were a dark-skinned people known today as Aborigines. The Aborigines had lived in Australia for at least 40,000 years before the first white settlers arrived in the country. The British settled Australia as a prison colony in the late 1700's. Since then, the number of whites has increased and the number of Aborigines has declined. Today, the vast majority of Australians are white.

For the total population of Australia, see the Australia in brief table with this article. Approximately 80 per cent of the people live in the southeastern quarter of the country, especially in large cities along the coast. Most of the remaining population live along the northeast and the extreme southwest coasts.

Most Australians are European immigrants or descendants of European immigrants. Aborigines make up about 11/2 per cent of the population. Traditionally, Australia has relied heavily on immigrants to build up its labour force. Millions of immigrants have been attracted to Australia by the promise of high-paying jobs.

Until the mid-1900's, the great majority of immigrants were from the UK and Ireland. After World War II ended in 1945, the government began a special programme to encourage Europeans who had been left homeless by the war to move to Australia. The government later included any Europeans who wished to move to Australia and who could meet the immigration requirements. Australia also accepts refugees.

Australia has admitted about 43/4 million immigrants. About half of them have come from the UK. Most of the rest have come from mainland Europe. Since the 1970's, the number of immigrants from New Zealand and Southeast Asia has increased rapidly. Australia has a large foreign-born population because of the high rate of immigration since World War II. About 20 per cent of all Australians were born abroad.

English is the official language of Australians. However, Australian English differs from British English in certain ways. The British who settled in Australia had to develop a vocabulary to describe the many unfamiliar animals and plants in their new environment. In some cases, the settlers used existing English words. For example, they gave the name magpie to a bird that resembles the British magpie but is actually unrelated to any bird in the United Kingdom. In other cases, many of the British settlers borrowed words from the Aborigines. Such Aboriginal words as kangaroo and koala were thus introduced into English.

Pioneer settlers in the Australian interior invented a large, colourful vocabulary. Large farms became known as stations, their owners as squatters. A herd of animals is a mob, and wild horses are brumbies. The interior itself became known as the outback.

Australia has about 265,000 Aborigines. The majority are of mixed Aboriginal and white ancestry. The rest are of unmixed ancestry. Most Aborigines live in rural areas of New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia. Since the early 1960's, however, a growing number of younger Aborigines have moved to the cities.

After the arrival of Europeans, many Aborigines were killed or forced from their homes by white settlers. Since then, most Aborigines have lived on the fringes of white society. In many cases, they have been actively discouraged from joining white communities. In other cases, they have chosen to live in tribal settlements. These communities preserve some Aboriginal ways of life, especially traditional religious beliefs and traditional styles of painting and craftwork.

Regardless of where they live, the Aborigines generally lag far behind white Australians in education and income. They also lack decent housing and proper health care. Over the years, many white Australians have tried to help the Aborigines raise their standard of living. But for many years, churches and other private groups provided the only organized assistance. A clause in the Australian Constitution prevented the federal government from aiding most Aborigines directly. In 1967, however, Australians voted overwhelmingly to remove this clause from the Constitution.

Today, the Australian government has numerous programmes to improve the health, education, skills, and living conditions of the Aborigines. The government also has a programme to help Aboriginal communities in rural areas gain title to their land. However, many Aborigines want a greater voice in deciding their own affairs. They especially want to regain control over all their traditional tribal territories, not only those lands occupied by Aboriginal communities. For detailed information on the traditional culture of the Aborigines, see the article AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES.

The great majority of the Australian people belong to the middle class. Most Australians also have similar educational backgrounds and hold similar values and attitudes. The ways of life throughout the country are therefore remarkably uniform. Even the differences between life in the cities and life in rural areas are relatively minor.

Australia is one of the world's most urbanized countries. More than four-fifths of the people live in cities and towns. About 70 per cent of all Australians live in cities of more than 100,000 people. These cities include the federal capital, Canberra, and the six state capitals. The state capitals, in order of size, are Sydney, New South Wales; Melbourne, Victoria; Brisbane, Queensland; Perth, Western Australia; Adelaide, South Australia; and Hobart, Tasmania. Canberra is smaller than all the state capitals except Hobart. Sydney and Melbourne are by far the biggest cities in Australia. Sydney has about 31/2 million people, and Melbourne about 3 million.

Each of Australia's state capitals is not only the political centre but also the chief commercial, industrial, and cultural centre of its state. Each is the oldest or one of the oldest settlements in the state. Each was laid out near the mouth of a river and as close as possible to a good ocean harbour. The river provided drinking water. The harbour enabled the settlement to develop into a centre of trade and immigration. These advantages helped each state capital become the largest city in its state.

Newcastle, Penrith, Wollongong, and Geelong are large industrial cities that have grown up near the big state capitals on the southeast coast. The Newcastle and Wollongong areas have coal deposits. Gold Coast is a popular resort city on the east coast a short distance south of Brisbane.

The main business district of each state capital is its oldest section, the area nearest the waterfront. In the largest cities, most of the original buildings in this section have been replaced by modern structures, including many high-rise office buildings. In addition to office buildings, the central areas have a selection of shops, theatres, and restaurants.

Most city dwellers in Australia live in the residential areas that extend outward from the central business district. Australians call these areas suburbs. Australian cities generally have few apartment buildings. Most families live in single-storey houses, each with its own garden. About 75 per cent of families in Australia own their houses. Most older houses are made of wood, and most newer ones are built of bricks. The suburbs have their own schools, churches, shopping centres, and recreational facilities. Some suburbs, especially those located around Sydney and Melbourne, also have industrial districts.

Australia's major cities have problems common to large cities everywhere. These problems include air and noise pollution, overcrowding, unemployment, vandalism, and rush-hour traffic jams. Before the 1950's, the inner suburbs, those closest to the city, were the poorest residential areas. These areas had high rates of unemployment and crime. However, during the 1950's, many non-British immigrants began settling in these inner-city suburbs and helped regenerate them. Many middle-class residents have moved to these areas, and many poorer families now live in the outer suburbs.

Only about 13 per cent of Australia's people live in rural areas. Australians call the remote countryside the bush. The term outback refers specifically to the interior. The outback consists mainly of open countryside, including vast expanses of grazing land. But it also has widely scattered settlements. The largest ones are mining towns.

Nearly all farms in the outback are cattle or sheep stations. Life on the stations tends to be extremely isolated. The largest stations cover over 2,600 square kilometres and so may be 160 kilometres or more from the nearest town. In addition, the outback has few paved roads, and so car travel may be difficult or impossible. Some farm families have a light aeroplane, which they use for transportation to and from town. Families who do not own a plane may get to town only a few times a year. In farming regions nearer the coasts, the towns are larger and closer together. But even in those regions farm families may feel far removed from the life of the cities.

All rural areas in Australia are subject to such natural disasters as droughts, floods, and bushfires. Because they share the threat of frequent disaster, rural Australians tend to feel exceptionally strong ties with one another. Their sense of community is reflected in the fact that they have long had their own political party, the National Party. Many of the rural communities in Australia have their own traditional fairs, festivals, and sports competitions.

Poverty is a problem in some rural areas, due to the lack of local employment. However, most farm families own their farms and live comfortably. Older farmhouses are built of wood and surrounded by a verandah (wide porch). Newer farmhouses are constructed of bricks. Nearly all the houses have electric power, and a growing number of them have air conditioning.

Meat is plentiful in Australia and makes up a large part of the people's diet. Beef is the most popular meat, followed by lamb and mutton, poultry, and pork. Australians generally prefer their food plain rather than spicy. Meat is usually grilled or roasted and served with potatoes and another vegetable. However, Italian, Greek, and various other European styles of cooking have become increasingly popular as the number of immigrants from mainland Europe has increased. Many Australians have also developed a taste for food from Southeast Asian countries. Chinese restaurants are common throughout Australia. In addition, the larger cities have a number of Indian, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants.

Tea is still a popular hot drink in Australia. However, coffee consumption has tripled since the mid-1900's, while tea consumption has declined. Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink. Australia's long, sunny summers and mild winters enable the people to enjoy picnics and barbecues all year round.

Most Australians enjoy such recreation as visiting friends, going for a drive or walk, or watching television. Outdoor sports are extremely popular. Many people enjoy skin diving, surfing, swimming, or boating. Many also play golf and tennis. Team sports are a national pastime. Australians begin to play team sports in primary school, and many continue to play them throughout life. The best players may work their way up through local and state competitions and perhaps win a position in one of the national teams. The nation's professional sports teams have large and enthusiastic followings.

The most popular team sports in Australia are cricket, Australian Rules football, Rugby League, Rugby Union, and soccer. Cricket is a favourite summer sport in Australia. The Australian national cricket team regularly plays against teams from England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the West Indies.

Australian Rules football, Rugby League, Rugby Union, and soccer are played mainly during the winter. Australian Rules football was invented in Australia and is played only there and in the former Australian possession of Papua New Guinea. It is especially popular in southern Australia. Rugby League and Rugby Union are forms of football that were invented in England. Rugby League is the professional form of the sport, and Rugby Union is the amateur form. Australia plays Rugby League and Rugby Union chiefly against Britain, France, and New Zealand. Soccer is the fastest-growing team sport in Australia. The national soccer team plays teams from many other countries.

Australia has produced many world-famous athletes, especially in tennis, golf, swimming, and athletics. Australians have won numerous Olympic medals in swimming, athletics, rowing, cycling, and yachting. They also compete successfully in the international sport of surfing.

Each Australian state and the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have their own laws concerning education. The federal government regulates education in the other territories. In all the states and territories except Tasmania, children must attend school from age 6 to age 15. However, they may start school before the age of 6, and most start at age 5. Tasmania requires children to attend school from age 6 to age 16. About three-quarters of Australian students attend state schools. The rest attend Roman Catholic or other independent schools.

Each Australian state operates its own state school system. However, the state systems depend on the federal government for most of their funds. The Australian Capital Territory finances and operates the state schools in its area. The Roman Catholic Church owns and operates most of Australia's independent schools. Unlike the state schools, most of the independent schools in Australia charge a tuition fee. The federal government grants funds to assist independent schools.

Australian primary schools provide six to eight years of study. The number of years varies from one state or territory to another and in some cases includes a year of kindergarten. Australian secondary schools offer five or six years of education, depending on the system of the particular state or territory. Formerly, most students left school when they reached the age requirement. But today more students stay on at school after the age of 15 or 16 even if they do not intend to go on to a university or college.

Many Australian children in remote areas of the outback receive their primary and secondary education at home by means of correspondence schools and schools of the air. Each state operates a correspondence school for children in isolated areas. The Northern Territory operates two such schools. The students receive and turn in their assignments by mail. The states and the Northern Territory operate schools of the air to enable correspondence school students to communicate with teachers directly. The teachers are stationed at broadcasting centres in various parts of the country and talk with students by means of two-way radios.

Australia has 37 universities. Thirty-one of these universities are publicly owned, and six are private. Each university offers undergraduate and graduate studies. Australia also has several publicly owned colleges of advanced education that offer various degrees. Students at publicly owned universities and colleges pay tuition fees that cover part of the cost of their education, and the federal government pays the rest. Tuition fees at Australia's private universities are considerably higher than fees at publicly-owned universities.

The Australian Constitution forbids a state religion and guarantees religious freedom. The great majority of Australians are Christians, but only 15 per cent attend church regularly. The Anglican Church has the most members. Roman Catholics make up the second largest religious group.

Smaller numbers of Australians belong to the Baptist, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Uniting churches. The Methodist Church of Australia joined with a majority of the country's Congregationalists and Presbyterians to form the Uniting Church in 1977.

In general, the size of Australia's religious groups reflects the ancestry of the people. For example, the Anglican Church began in England, the source of many Australian immigrants. The large number of Roman Catholics mainly reflects the fact that many immigrants came from Ireland, Italy, and other Catholic countries.

Australia has small Jewish and Muslim minorities. Most of the Jews or their parents or grandparents came from mainland Europe. The Muslims or their ancestors migrated chiefly from the Middle East and from southern and southeastern Asia.

Australia is surrounded by water, like an island. But geographers class it as a continent rather than as an island because of its great size. It is sometimes referred to as an "island continent."

Australia covers 7,682,300 square kilometres, or about 5 per cent of the earth's land area. The island of Tasmania, which lies about 209 kilometres south of the Australian mainland, is considered part of the continent. Tasmania was part of the mainland until about 12,000 years ago. It became separated because the level of the ocean rose and covered the land connection.

Most of Australia is low and flat. The highest and most mountainous land lies along the east coast. Nearly all the land west of this region--about 90 per cent of the total land area--consists of level plains and low, flat-topped plateaus.

The Eastern Highlands include the highest elevations in Australia. The region extends from Cape York Peninsula in extreme northeastern Australia to the south coast of Tasmania. A low plain bordered by sandy beaches and rocky cliffs stretches along the Pacific coast. More rain falls on this coastal plain than anywhere else in the country. The southeastern section of the plain, from Brisbane to Melbourne, is by far the most heavily populated part of Australia.

The Eastern Highlands are sometimes called the Great Dividing Range because their slopes divide the flow of the rivers in the region. Rivers that flow down the eastern slopes empty into the ocean. Rivers that run down the western slopes flow to the Central Lowlands. However, the highlands are not a single range, nor are they especially mountainous. They consist mainly of high plateaus that are broken in many places by gorges, hills, and low mountain ranges.

Many of the plateaus in the Eastern Highlands have fertile soils and are used as cropland. Grass or forests cover other plateaus. At one time, forests also covered much of the coastal plain. Except in the far north, however, most of the coastal forests have been cleared for farms and cities.

The Central Lowlands have the lowest elevations in Australia. The region is generally flat. Many rivers in this part of Australia fill up only after heavy rains. Rains are infrequent, however, except along the region's north and south coasts and near the Eastern Highlands. Thus, riverbeds farther inland are dry for most of the year.

Farmers in the southern part of the Central Lowlands grow wheat. Most of the rest of the region is too dry or too hot for most kinds of crops. However, much of the land is covered with coarse grass or shrubs and is used to graze livestock. The west-central part of the region is a barren, sandy desert. Lake Eyre, the lowest point in Australia, lies 16 metres below sea level along the southern edge of this desert.

The Western Plateau covers the western two-thirds of Australia. The region has a higher average elevation than the Central Lowlands. However, most of the land is flat, as in the lowlands.

Deserts cover the central part of the Western Plateau. Except in the south and northeast, the deserts gradually give way to land covered by grass and shrubs. Much of this land is used to graze livestock. Low mountain ranges rise above the general level of the plateau in the grazing areas. Rainfall is heaviest in the extreme north and southwest. These areas have most of the region's cropland.

A vast, dry, treeless plateau called the Nullarbor Plain extends about 640 kilometres along the southern edge of the region. The name Nullarbor comes from the Latin words nulla and arbor, which mean no tree.

The Western Plateau region has two large cities, Adelaide and Perth. Both cities lie on coastal plains, Adelaide in the extreme southeastern part of the region and Perth in the extreme southwest.

Australia's highest mountains rise in the Australian Alps in the extreme southern part of the Eastern Highlands. The Australian Alps consist of several ranges. The Snowy Mountains are the best known. Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciusko, rises 2,228 metres above sea level in the Snowy Mountains. Mount Kosciusko and other tall peaks in the Australian Alps are snow covered in winter and attract many skiers.

The mountain ranges in the Western Plateau are much lower than those in the Australian Alps. The highest peaks are in the MacDonnell and Musgrave ranges in central Australia. Ayers Rock, a huge loaf-shaped rock formation just south of the MacDonnell Ranges, is a popular tourist attraction.

Deserts cover about a third of Australia. The country has four major deserts. The Simpson Desert lies along the western edge of the Central Lowlands. The three other deserts--the Gibson, Great Sandy, and Great Victoria--cover the central part of the Western Plateau. All the deserts except the Gibson consist of swirling sands, which often drift into giant dunes. Some dunes measure more than 320 kilometres long. The Gibson Desert lies outside the path of the general wind direction and of wind-blown sands. Its surface consists of a mass of small stones and pebbles.

Rivers are one of Australia's most vital resources. Rivers provide the towns and cities with drinking water, and they supply farmers with much-needed water for irrigation. However, most of Australia's rivers are dry at least part of the year. They fill with water only during the rainy season. The rainy season occurs in summer in northern Australia, and in winter in southern Australia. Dams and reservoirs on all the largest rivers store water for use during the dry season.

The Murray River is Australia's longest permanently flowing river. The Murray River starts in the Snowy Mountains and winds westward 2,589 kilometres. It empties into the ocean southeast of Adelaide. During the southern dry season, the Murray is fed by the country's longest river, the Darling. The Darling River begins in the central part of the Eastern Highlands and flows southwestward 2,739 kilometres to the Murray. The Darling is dry along most of its course in the winter. Its flow increases in summer, when the northern and central parts of the Eastern Highlands receive most of their rain. The Darling thus supplies the Murray when most of the other southern rivers dry up.

Australia's biggest water conservation project is the Snowy Mountains Scheme. It consists of an extensive system of dams, aqueducts, and tunnels. Some of the aqueducts and tunnels carry water from melting snows in the Snowy Mountains to nearby dams. The dams store the water. Other aqueducts and tunnels channel water from the dams into the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers. The increased flow of water in these rivers is used to irrigate cropland in New South Wales and Victoria. Hydroelectric plants at the dams supply New South Wales, Victoria, and the Capital Territory with a little of their electric power. Tasmania draws almost all of its electric power from hydroelectric facilities that operate on a much larger scale than the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Australia's only large permanent lakes have been artificially created. They include Lake Argyle in Western Australia and Lake Gordon in Tasmania. Both are reservoirs for water conservation projects.

Most of Australia's natural lakes are dry for months or years at a time. Dry lakes called playas are common in South Australia and Western Australia. Most of the time, a playa is simply a dry bed of salt or clay. It fills with water only after heavy rains. Many playas lie in areas of extremely light rainfall and so may remain dry for years. The largest playas are in South Australia. They include Lake Eyre, Lake Torrens, Lake Gairdner, and Lake Frome.

Australia has fairly plentiful underground water. But most of it is too salty for people to drink or for use as irrigation water. In many areas, however, the water is not too salty for livestock to drink. On many large cattle and sheep stations, underground wells supply all the drinking water for the animals.

Much of Australia's underground water is artesian water. Artesian water is trapped under such great pressure that it gushes to the surface through any opening. The water can thus be brought to the surface merely by digging a well. It does not have to be pumped.

Australia's chief source of artesian water is a vast underground rock formation called the Great Artesian Basin. The basin extends across much of eastern Australia. Other artesian basins lie near the northwest, west, and south coasts. Most of the water in the Great Artesian Basin is quite salty and so can be drunk only by livestock. In general, the water in the coastal basins has less salt. Some of this water is used for irrigation. Adelaide, Perth, and many smaller communities get some drinking water from coastal basins.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef and one of Australia's most popular tourist attractions. Although its name suggests one reef, the Great Barrier Reef is a chain of more than 2,500 reefs. It also includes many small islands. The reefs and islands extend in a nearly unbroken chain for about 2,010 kilometres along Australia's northeast coast. The reefs are composed of about 400 species of corals of many shapes and colours. The waters around the Great Barrier Reef are warm all year round. The warm waters and the beauty of the coral formations attract swimmers and skin divers.

The northern third of Australia lies in the tropics and so is warm or hot all the year round. The rest of the country lies south of the tropics and has warm summers and mild or cool winters. In winter, many parts of the south have occasional frosts. But the Australian Alps and the interior of Tasmania are the only areas of the country where temperatures remain below freezing for more than a day or so at a time.

Australia receives most of its moisture as rain. Snow falls only in Tasmania and the Australian Alps. About a third of the country is desert and receives less than 25 centimetres of rain a year. The deserts are too barren for the grazing of livestock. Much of the rest of Australia has less than 50 centimetres of rainfall annually. Few crops can be grown in these regions without irrigation. The heaviest rainfall in Australia occurs along the north, east, southeast, and extreme southwest coasts.

The east coast of Queensland is the wettest part of the continent. Some places along this coast receive as much as 380 centimetres of rain a year. Parts of the southeast coast and Tasmania are the only areas of the continent that receive uniform amounts of rainfall all year round. Rainfall is seasonal throughout the rest of Australia.

Australia lies south of the equator, and so its seasons are opposite those in the Northern Hemisphere. The southern part of the continent has four distinct seasons. Winter, the wettest and coolest season in Australia, lasts from June to August. Summer, which is the hottest and driest season in Australia, lasts from December to February.

Tropical northern Australia has only two seasons--a wet season and a dry one. The wet season corresponds with summer and lasts from November to April. The dry season corresponds with winter and lasts from May to October.

The wet season brings heavy downpours and violent storms, especially on Australia's north coast. In 1974, for example, a cyclone almost levelled the northern coastal city of Darwin. Floods plague many parts of Australia during the wet season. However, droughts are usually a far more serious problem. Nearly every section of Australia has a drought during the country's annual dry season.

Water conservation measures prevent these droughts from doing serious harm in most cases. However, Australia also has periods when little or no rain falls even during the wet season. These droughts can cause severe water shortages.

The continent of Australia contains rocks that are among the oldest in the world. Some of them were formed over 3,000 million years ago. A great variety of rocks of all ages can be found throughout Australia.

During the Precambrian Eon, much of Australia's mineral wealth of today was created. The vast period during which the rocks accumulated have resulted in valuable mineral concentrations called ores. Major iron ore deposits are mined in the Hamersley Ranges of Western Australia, and at Iron Monarch, in South Australia.

Fossils (the remains of creatures and plants from former times) are relatively scarce in Precambrian rocks. Some forms of bacteria are the oldest fossils found in Australia, but probably the most common are tiny plants known as stromatolites. Primitive worms, jellyfish, sponges, and corals were also present.

Central Australia was covered by a shallow sea during the Cambrian Period, which lasted from about 600 million to about 480 million years ago. Trilobites (small animals with soft shells), brachiopods (lamp shells), graptolites (small compound animals), sponges, sea urchins, worms, and sea lilies lived in this sea.

Much of the gold mined in Victoria in the 1800's was found in rocks from the Ordovician Period of about 480 million to about 435 million years ago. A large part of Australia was beneath the sea, and sediments accumulated. Cambrian sea life was joined by corals and cephalopods (squid-like creatures). Land creatures did not yet exist. Precambrian strata (rock layers) at Mount Isa, Queensland, provide copper, lead, and zinc. The Kalgoorlie and Pilbara goldfields are in Precambrian Shields (stable regions composed of extremely old, hard rocks).

The Silurian Period, which began about 435 million years ago and lasted about 30 million years, created the granites and other Silurian rocks which have been the source of much of the gold mined in New South Wales.

Midway through the Devonian Period, which lasted from about 405 million to 345 million years ago, massive earth movements in eastern Australia forced the land high above sea level.

Fossils indicate that plants first appeared on dry land in Australia during this time. Devonian rocks also contain the fossils of primitive fish. Graptolites died out and some fish developed the capacity to breathe air.

Granites from the Carboniferous Period from 345 million to 275 million years ago, have been the source of gold, copper, lead, zinc, and tungsten in Queensland, and tungsten and tin in Tasmania.

The Permian Period, from 275 million to 225 million years ago, is notable for the valuable coal reserves along the eastern edge of Australia. Permian sediments have also yielded natural gas at Gidgealpa in South Australia and oil in the Perth Basin of Western Australia.

During the early Permian Period Australia was subjected to widespread glaciation. Later, the climate became warmer and the sea level rose. Animals with backbones, including reptiles and amphibians, lived on the land. The most common plant was a fern-like plant called glossopteris.

Almost all of Australia was above sea level during the Triassic Period, from 225 million to 180 million years ago. Triassic sediments were deposited on floodplains, in river deltas, and in lakes. The hard sandstones of the Sydney region and the Blue Mountains were deposited at this time. Volcanoes were active in Queensland. Fossils show that ferns, tree ferns, insects, and freshwater fish were abundant.

The Jurassic Period, from 180 million to 130 million years ago, saw a great thickness of sediment accumulate in a huge inland depression on the northeastern part of Australia. Cycads (primitive palmlike plants) were the dominant plants. Dinosaurs and other reptiles lived on land.

Many of the famous opal fields of South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland are located in Cretaceous sediments from the Cretaceous Period, which lasted from 130 million to 65 million years ago. The opal is from a later period. The Burrum and Styx coalfields were also formed in eastern Queensland.

Pine forests, cycads, and ferns were the most common land plants of the Cretaceous in Australia. Flowering plants first appeared at this time. The Australian bush as we know it today developed from these plants. Mammals and birds were becoming more common.

The Tertiary Period lasted from 65 million to about 2 million years ago. During this period, low-lying coastal areas were flooded, depositing the limestone of the Nullarbor Plain and the sedimentary rocks on which the Great Barrier Reef later formed. The brown coalfields of the Gippsland region accumulated at this time. The oil and gas fields of Bass Strait occur in Tertiary strata. The rich bauxite mines at Weipa, in north Queensland, and Gove, in the Northern Territory, are the result of the weathering which occurred during the Tertiary.

Toward the end of the Tertiary, tremendous earth movements raised large areas of eastern Australia, forming the Great Dividing Range. The huge reptiles of the Mesozoic had died out and only smaller reptiles remained. Birds became common and mammals flourished.

During the Quaternary Period, which extends from about 2 million years ago to the present day, the world sea level fell and rose several times as a result of periods of glaciation. When sea levels fell, the Australian mainland joined with Tasmania and New Guinea, and indirectly to Southeast Asia. It was during the last glacial period that the Aborigines entered Australia.

The coral of the Great Barrier Reef belongs to the Quaternary Period. Except for the Snowy Mountains, the Quaternary glaciations had little direct erosional effect on the Australian mainland.

Animal and plant life in the Quaternary evolved toward the modern forms. The marsupials and mammals developed in isolation from the rest of the world and so many of their biological features are unique.

At one time, all the continents were part of one huge land mass. Australia became separated from this land mass about 200 million years ago. As a result, its animals developed differently from those on other continents. Australia's most famous native animals include kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, and other marsupials. Marsupials are mammals that give birth to tiny, poorly developed offspring. In most species, the babies mature in a pouch on the mother's abdomen. Australia has about 150 species of marsupials, all of which have pouches.

The platypus and the echidna are among the strangest Australian animals. They are the only mammals that hatch their young from eggs. Platypuses live only in Australia. Echidnas live in Australia and on the neighbouring island of New Guinea.

Australia has about 700 species of native birds. They include the world's only black swans and about 60 kinds of cockatoos, parakeets, and other parrots. Two large flightless birds, the emu and the cassowary, are also native to Australia. The kookaburra, a member of the kingfisher family, is one of Australia's best-known birds. Its loud, harsh call is a familiar sound in residential areas.

Australia has about 140 species of snakes and about 370 species of lizards. Most of the snakes are poisonous. In fact, two of them, the taipan and the tiger snake, are among the deadliest snakes in the world. All the lizards are nonpoisonous.

Two main kinds of native plants, acacias and eucalyptuses, dominate Australia's landscape. They are the most common shrubs in the dry lands and the most common trees in the moister areas. Acacias, which Australians call wattles, bear their seeds in pods. Australia has about 700 species of acacias. Many of them have brightly coloured flowers. Common shrubby species include the mulga and the myall. The silver wattle and the blackwood are tall trees.

Eucalyptuses--or eucalypts, as they are known in Australia--are the most widespread plants in the country. Australia has about 500 species. Most species have narrow, leathery leaves. The leaves contain a fragrant oil, which gives the plants a noticeable odour.

Scrubby eucalyptuses, which are known as mallees, cover large areas of the interior. Eucalyptus trees, which Australians call gum trees or gums, are the tallest trees in the country and among the tallest in the world. Two species, the mountain ash and the karri, may grow to about 85 metres. Eucalyptuses once grew only in Australia and on a few islands to the north. However, eucalyptuses have been planted in many other warm areas, including California and Hawaii in the United States, and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

Palms and trees that resemble palms grow in many parts of Australia. Grass trees are palmlike trees of the western dry lands. Macrozamia trees grow throughout Australia. They have palmlike or fernlike leaves and bear cones, like needleleaf trees. Australia has few native needleleaf trees. The kauri pine and bunya pine are among the few exceptions. Shrubs called saltbushes are common in the dry grazing areas of southern Australia. Saltbushes are so named because their leaves have a salty taste. The leaves provide excellent feed for livestock.

Australia has thousands of wildflowers. Many of them are desert species whose seeds lie buried in the ground until brought to life by a heavy rain. Then, for a few days or weeks, the desert is carpeted with flowers of every imaginable colour.

The only mammals that lived in Australia before the first settlers arrived were bats, echidnas, mice, platypuses, rats, and the various kinds of marsupials. The first settlers, the Aborigines, brought along a type of dog known as a dingo. Some dingoes escaped into the wild. Today, their descendants are Australia's chief beasts of prey. European settlers introduced many European mammals, including cats, cattle, deer, foxes, goats, horses, pigs, rabbits, and sheep. They also introduced such animals as camels and water buffaloes, various kinds of birds, and many species of plants.

Camels, water buffaloes, and certain other introduced species have become wild and are pests. In some cases, species have had to be exterminated. Rabbits, for example, caused extensive damage to crops and grazing lands. A drive to wipe them out with a deliberately introduced disease, myxomatosis, met with considerable success. However, their numbers have again increased.

Australia is one of the world's rich, developed countries. Most developed countries have become rich through the production and export of manufactured goods. Australia's wealth, however, has come chiefly from farming and mining.

The processing of farm and mineral products makes up a major part of Australia's manufacturing industry. For many years, manufacturing was the leading employer in Australia. But since about 1970, manufacturing has declined in importance, while service industries have increased in importance.

The nation relies on its farms and mines to produce goods for export. By selling farm products and minerals abroad, Australia earns the export income that most other developed countries earn from the sale of manufactured products. However, only part of Australia's export income goes to the farmers and mining companies that produce the goods originally. Much of it goes to firms that process and distribute the goods. Thus, Australia's agricultural and mineral exports benefit the economy as a whole and enable many Australians to have a high standard of living.

Australia has traditionally been handicapped by a lack of capital--that is, money to finance business and industrial development. The country has had to borrow capital from other nations and has become heavily indebted to them. Many mining companies, factories, and other businesses in Australia are owned or controlled by American, British, Japanese, and other foreign investors.

Australia's farms are highly mechanized and therefore require a minimum of human labour. Only about 5 per cent of the country's workers are farmers. They produce large amounts of food for export as well as most items needed by Australians themselves.

Farmland covers about 65 per cent of Australia. However, most of this land is dry grazing land. Crops are grown on only about 5 per cent of the farmland. But farmers use modern agricultural methods and so make the cropland highly productive. About 10 per cent of the cropland is irrigated.

Australia's leading farm products by far are cattle and calves, wheat, and wool, followed by dairy products, fruit, and sugar cane. These products are also the country's chief agricultural exports. Australia is the world's largest producer and exporter of wool and a leading producer and exporter of beef, sugar, and wheat. The country's other major farm products include barley, chicken and eggs, cotton, oats, rice, potatoes, sheep and lambs, and vegetables.

Sheep and cattle are raised in all the Australian states, though some states raise far more than others. New South Wales and Western Australia together raise more than half the country's sheep and produce about half its wool. Queensland and New South Wales raise more than half of Australia's beef cattle. Victoria is the leading producer of dairy products. Wheat is grown in all areas of the country that have medium rainfall and moderate temperatures. But production is heavily concentrated in New South Wales and Western Australia. Farms on the east coast of Queensland grow sugar cane, bananas, pineapples, and other crops that need a wet tropical climate. Such fruit as apples and pears are grown in all the states. New South Wales and South Australia produce most of the country's oranges. South Australia also produces large quantities of grapes that are used for making wine.

Australia has rich mineral resources. But many of the deposits lie in the dry areas, far from major settlements. Such deposits are extremely expensive to mine. Roads and railways have to be constructed to the mining sites. Towns must be built for the miners and their families. The costs of mining development in Australia are so high that the mining industry depends heavily on foreign capital. Foreign investors own or control about half of the mining industry.

Australia began to develop its mineral resources during the 1800's. By the end of the century, it was exporting large amounts of copper, gold, lead, silver, tin, and zinc. These minerals remained the chief products of Australia's mining industry throughout the first half of the 1900's.

During the 1950's, geologists discovered huge deposits of bauxite, coal, and iron ore in Australia. They discovered manganese, natural gas, nickel, and petroleum during the 1960's.

Australia has become one of the world's major mining countries. It ranks first in the production of bauxite, industrial diamonds, and lead, and is a leading producer of coal, copper, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, silver, tin, titanium, tungsten, zinc, and zircon. Nearly all the world's high-quality opals are mined in Australia.

Western Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales, in that order, are the leading mining states. Western Australia produces most of the nickel, iron ore, and gold and much of the bauxite. Queensland is the chief producer of bauxite, copper, and silver. New South Wales leads in the production of coal, lead, and zinc. All the manganese is mined in the Northern Territory. Most tin and tungsten come from Tasmania. Offshore fields along the northwest coast of Western Australia are Australia's main source of petroleum. Other major petroleum producers include South Australia and Victoria. Natural gas is produced mainly in South Australia and the northwest coastal shelf of Western Australia. The country has the world's largest undeveloped deposits of uranium. Australia's richest uranium deposits are located in the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Unlike most other industrial countries, Australia imports more manufactured goods than it exports. Australian factories produce most of the consumer goods, such as processed foods and household articles, that the people require. But the nation has to import many of its producer goods--that is, factory machinery, construction equipment, and other goods used in production. Iron and steel are the chief exceptions. Australia's iron and steel industry produces enough of the metals to meet the needs of other industries. Australia's factories depend heavily on the investment of foreign capital, though not as much as does Australia's mining industry.

Most of Australia's factories specialize in assembly work and light manufacturing. Many plants process farm products or minerals for export. The leading manufactured products are processed foods; metals, including iron and steel; transportation equipment, including cars; paper; chemicals; textiles, clothing, and shoes; and household appliances. New South Wales and Victoria are the chief manufacturing states. Together, these two states have about two-thirds of the country's factories and about two-thirds of the factory workers. Most of the factories are located in and around Sydney and Melbourne.

Forests cover about 6 per cent of Australia. Nearly all of them grow in the Eastern Highlands and in the moist coastal areas. The northeast coast has tropical rainforests. The vast majority of Australia's forest trees are eucalyptuses. The wood of some eucalyptus species is used for making paper and such items as floorboards and furniture. But eucalyptus wood is too hard for most other purposes, including most types of housing construction. Therefore, imported species of softwoods have been grown on plantations. Monterey pines, which were imported from California, United States, have become Australia's second most important timber trees, after eucalyptuses.

Although Australia is surrounded by water, its fishing resources are limited. Thousands of species of fishes live in the coastal waters, but only a few are both plentiful and good to eat. However, Australia has developed a small but profitable fishing industry. The industry earns most of its income from the fishing of shellfish, especially abalones, lobsters, oysters, prawns, and scallops. The fishing fleet also brings in fairly large catches of mullet, salmon, and tuna. Much of the shellfish catch is exported. Some pearls are collected from oysters.

Service industries are the economic activities that produce services, not goods. Service industries provide about two-thirds of Australia's jobs and make up nearly two-thirds of Australia's gross domestic product--the total value of goods and services produced annually. Hospitals, schools, government agencies, stores, hotels, and restaurants are service industries. Also included in this category are banking, trade, transportation and communication, and tourism activities.

Australia has a variety of tourist attractions. They include wildlife sanctuaries, sandy beaches, the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Alps, and numerous points of historical interest. About 1 million foreign tourists visit Australia each year. Tourism aids the Australian economy.

Distance and cost have been the major obstacles to growth of Australia's tourist industry. Australia is about twice as far from North America and Europe as North America and Europe are from each other. Travel between Europe and North America is therefore less costly than it is between Europe or North America and Australia. The vast distances between cities makes travelling around Australia more difficult and expensive. About half of Australia's visitors come from nearby, especially New Zealand and other Pacific islands, Japan, and Southeast Asia. These places are also the ones most visited by Australian tourists.

During the 1950's, Australia earned about 85 per cent of its export income from the sale of farm goods. Farm exports remain vital to the nation's economy. But Australia has increased its export income since the 1950's chiefly by increasing its overseas sales of minerals and manufactured products. Today, farm products account for about 20 per cent of Australia's export earnings. Minerals and other raw materials account for about 45 per cent, and manufactured goods for about 35 per cent. About 85 per cent of Australia's imports are manufactured goods.

For many years, the United Kingdom (UK) was Australia's chief trading partner. It bought Australian farm products and supplied Australia with producer goods. During the 1960's, the UK's trade with Australia began to decline. Australia still exports minerals, wheat, and fruit to the UK and other Western European countries. But today, Japan is Australia's biggest customer. It especially buys coal, iron ore, and other minerals. China, Japan, and other Asian countries have become major purchasers of Australian farm products, especially wheat. Japan is by far the leading buyer of Australian wool. The United States and Japan have replaced the UK as Australia's chief source of producer goods. The United States, in turn, imports large amounts of Australian beef, shellfish, sugar, and alumina--the substance in bauxite that is used to make aluminium.

Cars are the chief means of passenger transportation in Australia. Nearly every family owns a car and uses it for most local travel. Paved roads link the state capitals and the largest inland cities. Most roads in the outback are unpaved.

Qantas Airways Limited and Ansett Airlines are Australia's two major domestic and international airlines. Qantas was formerly owned by the federal government, but since 1995 it has been privately owned. Ansett is privately owned and operated. Many foreign airlines fly between Australia and major cities throughout the world. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth all have international airports.

Air transportation is particularly important in the outback. A private, nonprofit organization called the Royal Flying Doctor Service flies emergency medical help to all areas of the outback except the Northern Territory. A publicly owned company provides this service in the Northern Territory.

Railways and ships haul most of Australia's intercity freight. All of Australia's main-line railways are publicly owned. The Trans-Australian Railway is the country's longest rail line. It extends 1,783 kilometres from Port Pirie in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The main-line railways chiefly haul farm goods and minerals from the producing areas to the coastal cities and ports. In addition to the main rail lines, Australia has a number of small private railways. These lines largely haul minerals from out-of-the-way mines to the main-line railways. Sydney and Melbourne have extensive commuter rail and underground systems.

Ships carry large amounts of minerals between Australian coastal ports, and they haul nearly all the country's overseas freight. However, Australia has only a small merchant fleet. Foreign vessels carry most of the nation's intercoastal freight and almost all its overseas cargo. The busiest eastern ports include Gladstone, Hay Point, Melbourne, Newcastle, and Sydney. Dampier, Fremantle, Port Hedland, and Port Walcott are among the busiest ports in Western Australia.

Australia's postal, telephone, and telegraph systems are owned by the federal government and operated by independent government agencies. The Australian Postal Commission runs the postal system. The Australian Telecommunications Commission operates the country's telephone and telegraph systems. Except in the outback, nearly every Australian household has a telephone. In the remotest parts of the outback, many people use two-way radios in place of telephones.

Almost all Australian families own one or more television sets and radios. Commercial broadcasters own and operate about half the radio stations and about a third of the TV stations. The rest are owned and financed by the federal government and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), an independent government agency. Unlike the commercial stations, the ABC stations accept no advertising.

Australia has about 60 daily newspapers. All are privately owned. Every big city has at least one daily paper. The most widely read daily newspapers include Melbourne's Herald, Sun News-Pictorial, and The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald, and the Daily Mirror Telegraph in Sydney. A national daily, The Australian, is published in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane.